SOCIAL SUPPORT FROM FRIENDS AND INCIDENCE OF COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT A DECADE LATER

Abstract We inquire how diverse forms of social support from non-kin are associated with cognitive aging across ten years. We analyze data from 4,687 participants in the 2011 and 2021 waves of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), a cohort study of Wisconsin adolescents from the birth cohort of 1939 and their siblings. Net of sex, educational attainment, income, smoker status, depressive symptoms, self-reported health, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and stroke incidence, each additional domain in which participants perceived that they had instrumental support available from friends in 2011 was associated with a 0.07 standard deviation increase in cognitive function (i.e., TICS-m score) a decade later (p = .001). Moreover, participants who had a non-kin confidante in 2011 had significantly lower odds of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in 2021 (OR = 0.57; p = .006). Robust social engagement may help protect and maintain older adults’ cognitive skills.

coverage in the Census' Household Pulse Survey. However, it is unclear how these issues relate to older sexual minority populations. Moreover, previous research has shown that sexual minority older adults survey nonparticipation rates are similar to their heterosexual older adult peers. Yet, it is less clear whether racial/ethnic variability in nonparticipation rates and patterns of missingness among sexual minority older adults exist. The current investigation utilizes repeated pooled data from the Census' Household Pulse Survey (N=329,078) to fill these gaps. Findings reveal nonsampling bias error contributing to inflated racial/ethnic inequities in vaccination coverage among older sexual minorities, with distinct racial/ethnic variability in missingness patterns among sexual minority older adults. The paper concludes with recommendations for improving survey-based research and details suggestions to improve recruitment strategies that minimize nonsampling bias.

SOCIOEMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE IN CLOSE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND TRAJECTORIES OF COGNITIVE AGING Chair: Sara Moorman Discussant: Lucas Hamilton
Linked lives is a key tenet of the life course framework: Individuals age and develop in the company of a social convoy, or core set of relationships. The quality and quantity of relationships with friends and family are well-known predictors of physical and mental health outcomes, with research on how relationships affect cognitive health just beginning to blossom. This symposium presents four sociological studies of how positive and negative experiences in central, long-term personal relationships -marriages, parent-adult child relationships, and friendships -relate to cognition and the development of cognitive impairment over long periods of the life course, using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). Stokes, Prasad, and Barooah find that experiences of loneliness in marriage are negatively related both to one's own cognition and to the spouse's cognition. Herd and Sicinski also highlight potential negative and gendered aspects of marriage, showing no differences in cognitive performance between married and single men, while married women's cognition is not as strong as single women's cognition. In parent-adult child relationships, Zhang and Liu demonstrate that social support has stronger positive effects, and social strain, stronger negative effects, for mothers as compared to fathers. Moorman and Pai examine friendships with non-kin, and find benefits of emotional and instrumental support to cognition in the long term. Discussant Lucas Hamilton will provide perspective from psychology, addressing ambivalence in relationships and the potential for bidirectional associations between social experience and cognitive function. We inquire how diverse forms of social support from nonkin are associated with cognitive aging across ten years. We analyze data from 4,687 participants in the 2011 and 2021 waves of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), a cohort study of Wisconsin adolescents from the birth cohort of 1939 and their siblings. Net of sex, educational attainment, income, smoker status, depressive symptoms, self-reported health, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and stroke incidence, each additional domain in which participants perceived that they had instrumental support available from friends in 2011 was associated with a 0.07 standard deviation increase in cognitive function (i.e., TICS-m score) a decade later (p = .001). Moreover, participants who had a non-kin confidante in 2011 had significantly lower odds of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in 2021 (OR = 0.57; p = .006). Robust social engagement may help protect and maintain older adults' cognitive skills.

DYADIC LONELINESS AND COGNITIVE HEALTH AMONG OLDER MARRIED COUPLES: LONGITUDINAL EVIDENCE FROM THE HRS
Jeffrey Stokes, Anyah Prasad, and Adrita Barooah,

University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Loneliness is associated with numerous poor health outcomes, including mortality. Additionally, loneliness is not merely an isolated individual's experience; rather, loneliness occurs regularly even among the married, and can affect both spouses' health. We analyze 3-wave dyadic data from the Health and Retirement Study (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018); N = 7,907 dyads) to determine (a) whether loneliness is associated with participants' own and/or their partner's verbal fluency and episodic memory over a nearly decade-long period, and (b) whether these measures of cognitive health predict older spouses' own or their partner's loneliness over the same period. Results indicated that (1) loneliness, episodic memory, and verbal fluency were all "contagious" within couples, such that baseline levels of each predicted participants' own and their partner's values at follow-up; (2) participants' own loneliness was associated with poorer verbal fluency and episodic memory at follow-up; and (3) neither participants' own nor their partner's cognitive functioning predicted future loneliness.

RELATIONSHIP QUALITY AND OLDER PARENTS' COGNITIVE TRAJECTORIES: A NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL STUDY IN THE UNITED STATES
Yan Zhang 1 , and Hui Liu 2 , 1. University of Madison,Wisconsin,United States,2. Michigan State University,East Lansing,Michigan,United States This study aims to assess the impact of the relationship quality between parents and children on parents' cognitive function in later life, with an additional focus on variation by parents' gender. We analyze data from a nationally representative longitudinal panel survey of participants age 50 and older. We employ latent growth curve models (LGCM) to estimate how changes in parent-child relationship quality are related to cognitive trajectories over time. Maintaining frequent contact with children and receiving more support from children are associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline for older parents whereas experiencing relationship strain with children is associated with a faster rate of cognitive decline for older parents. These associations are stronger for mothers than fathers. This study highlights the importance of the "linked lives" of aging parents and their children. The findings have implications for the development of interventions and strategies to protect cognitive function in later life.

GENDER, MARITAL STATUS, AND COGNITIVE HEALTH IN LATE LIFE: IS MARRIAGE MORE PROTECTIVE FOR MEN? Pamela Herd, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
While marital status appears to be protective for one's health, there is also evidence of gender differences in its protective influence. In short, men appear to differentially benefit from marriage compared to women. A growing body of work on later life cognitive functioning and dementia also finds protective effects for those who are married. But there is less evidence as to whether those patterns differ by gender. Using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a nearly full life course longitudinal study, we find evidence that while there are no differences for men, married women, as compared to their unmarried counterparts, have lower levels of cognitive functioning at ~age 80. Differences in underlying health, educational attainment, and adolescent cognitive functioning do not explain the pattern. Similar to broader health, women do not appear to benefit from marriage in late life. Indeed, we find evidence of cognitive benefits of being single for older women.

THE CHALLENGE OF ASSESSING AND MEASURING SOCIAL INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION IN LATER LIFE Chair: Charles Waldegrave Discussant: Marja Aartsen
Social exclusion is a serious problem that can lead to diminished well-being, health problems, premature death and increased societal costs. Depending on the definition used, 10 to 30% of the older adults experience social exclusion, and many have been confronted with prolonged isolation during the pandemic. Constructing measures for social inclusion and exclusion is a challenging yet important endeavor, and various approaches exist. For example, EU-policy makers define social exclusion mainly in terms of poverty and lack of labor market participation However, a too narrow definition of social exclusion leaves large groups of people unattended leading to sub-optimal understandings of social exclusion and ineffective interventions. This symposium brings together scholars from different cultures. The first paper discusses newly developed social and well-being scales, that more adequately address cultural notions of exclusion and discrimination experienced by older Māori (indigenous New Zealanders). Based on unique data from time-diaries kept by older women from several European countries and the U.S, the second speaker discusses how increased time spend alone is key factor behind widows' reduced well-being. The last study finds a northwest to southeast gradient in objective exclusionary states, with the rates in southeast Europe to be pronounced among older women.